Organizing your renders into projects
Use projects, layers and sets to keep every render easy to find.
A single building generates more images than people expect. Exteriors at different times of day, interiors per room, site views, plus several revisions of each as the design moves. Left in a flat folder, that pile turns into a search problem within a week. Organizing architectural renders well from the start is the difference between finding the north facade at dusk in two seconds and scrolling for two minutes.
The studio gives you three levels of structure that mirror how a real project grows, so the way you file work matches the way you think about it. This guide explains how projects, layers and sets fit together, and how to find any image fast once you have hundreds.
Projects, layers and sets
The three levels nest inside each other, from the whole scheme down to a single view and its revisions. Learn them once and the rest of the studio falls into place.
- A project holds everything for one building or scheme, with its name, client and location.
- A layer groups a part of that project, such as the exterior, an interior or the site.
- A set groups the renders of one view or angle, so a north facade or a living room stays together.
- Each set keeps versions, so you can compare iterations of the same view without losing the earlier ones.
Set up a project the right way
- 1Start a new project and give it a clear name, client and location.
- 2Add a layer for each part of the building you are rendering.
- 3Inside a layer, create a set for each view you want to develop.
- 4Render into a set, and keep new attempts as versions rather than separate images.
Find work quickly
The projects screen is built to scale with you. Search by project, client or location, filter by status so you see only what is ready or still rendering, and sort by most recent, name or render count. Switch between a grid of covers and a dense list depending on whether you are browsing or scanning, and page through results so the screen never becomes an endless scroll.
Compare and iterate
Because each attempt is kept as a version inside its set, you can put two takes of the same view next to each other and judge them honestly. If a change made things worse, the earlier version is still there to fall back on, which makes experimenting cheap rather than risky.
Use cases
A few ways architects and designers put this to work.
Studio with many live projects
Keep each commission as its own project so partners can open a scheme and immediately see its exteriors, interiors and revisions without asking who saved what where.
Competition team
Group every board view as a set and let versions track the design as it evolves under deadline, so the final submission pulls from one tidy source.
Freelancer juggling clients
Filter by client and status to see at a glance which renders are ready to send and which are still building, across every project at once.
Common questions
- What is the difference between a layer and a set?
- A layer is a broad part of the project, like the exterior or an interior. A set sits inside a layer and groups the renders of one specific view, with its revisions kept as versions.
- Can I keep different versions of the same view?
- Yes. Render again into the same set and each attempt is kept as a version, so you can compare them and pick the strongest.
- How do I find one render among hundreds?
- Use search by project, client or location, narrow by status, and sort by recent or name. The list and grid views plus pagination keep large projects manageable.